Replacing old wall ties

[WiLdMoUsE]

Hi

I live in an end of terrace Victorian house that has suffered bowing to the external side wall at some point. This has been remedied by the installation of the old style wall ties consisting of an external metal disc that is bolted to a large threaded bolt which is in turn welded to a flat metal bar that is screwed across the top of a number of floor joists. There are four ties equally spaced at both levels.

I have discovered that one of these metal bars has been shortened considerably by a builder we had to do some work in the loft in order that he could relocate the access hatch. I now only screws into 1 joist.

Would it be possible to have this strengthened by removing the old disk and using one of the newer rods drilled through the joists and secured using epoxy? Also would this be possible to do externally without having to lift the floor in the loft room above the joists?

Thanks

 

[TheVictorian]

How many ties doe you already have in place? It might well be OK and I doubt you could do this externally without potentially drilling through cables etc inbetween the joists.

Our house is a Victorian Semi with patress plates and ties bars that go all the way through both houses - which is a fair distance. We've only got four of them though and that is to support a pretty substantial 3 storey wall.

If you are really worried then you should get a structural engineer to asses it and the builder should put it right as he caused the problem (if indeed there is a problem).